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enCauses abandons 184,674 nonprofit supporters on MySpacehttp://rootwork.mayfirst.org/blog/2009/11/causes-abandons-184674-nonprofit-supporters-myspace
<a href="/blog/2009/11/causes-abandons-184674-nonprofit-supporters-myspace" class="imagecache imagecache-blog_header imagecache-linked imagecache-blog_header_linked"><img src="http://rootwork.mayfirst.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/blog_header/blog/2009-11-06-cindy47452.jpg" alt="Leaving people behind" title="Credit: Flickr user cindy47452" width="720" height="304" class="imagecache imagecache-blog_header"/></a>
<p>This morning, the fundraising application <a href="http://www.causes.com/" target="_blank">Causes</a> quietly shut down their presence on MySpace. In their email to administrators of Causes on MySpace, they wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Thank you for the work you've done on Causes on MySpace. Due to the lack of activity on MySpace, we've decided to focus our efforts on the Causes application on Facebook. On Friday at noon EDT, we will be removing all causes from MySpace. In the meantime, you can post a link to a cause on Facebook (or create one at http://apps.facebook.com/causes) asking your members to change over. We appreciate the work you've put into your cause community on MySpace and we hope that the broader functionality available on the Causes application on Facebook will offer you even more opportunities to raise awareness, advocate for change and fundraise for your nonprofit. If you have questions, please email support@causes.com.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>At that exact moment, </strong><a href="http://www.myspace.com/causesapp" target="_blank"><strong>Causes on MySpace</strong></a><strong> had 184,674 current users.</strong> That's 184,674 individual people (minus a few nonprofit staffers) who had taken the time to install an application on MySpace specifically so they could show their support for a nonprofit charity or advocacy group on the social network.</p>
<p>As of today, those nonprofit badges have been removed from each of those 184,674 profiles, with no notice to those supporters as to why their Causes badges have disappeared. (The application's page on MySpace is still up, with no notification that it's being shut down; new users who try to add it get a message saying it's "temporarily unavailable.")</p>
<p>No notice has been posted to the <a href="http://exchange.causes.com/" target="_blank">Causes blog</a>; Susan Gordon, the&nbsp;Senior Nonprofit Coordinator of Causes, said in an email to me, "We didn't put the announcement on the blog before because the number of people using the MySpace app is so small."</p>
<h3>Why Causes on MySpace failed: Lack of engagement</h3>
<p>It's not clear from either email when Causes decided to shut down the MySpace side of its operation, or why it chose to do so within just a few days. Causes began on Facebook and has always had more users on there (currently 35.2 <em>million</em>). From Causes' point of view, MySpace was probably more trouble than it was worth given the percentage of their total users, though I wouldn't call nearly 200,000 people a "small" number.</p>
<p><strong>Causes on Facebook had, from the beginning, more to offer nonprofits than its MySpace version.</strong> Nonprofits could, for instance, send email messages to all their Causes supporters on Facebook &mdash; something not possible using Fan Pages or Facebook Groups over 2,000 people. On MySpace, probably due to the limitations of the network itself, there was no such functionality.</p>
<p>In fact, in one of my first write-ups on <a href="/blog/2008/10/using-social-networks-social-change-facebook-myspace-more#keys">using social networks for fundraising and advocacy</a>,<strong> I highlighted Causes not as a great way to fundraise but as a great way to engage members</strong>. There was less chance for engagement on MySpace; though supporters could still put up a badge demonstrating their support and make donations, in my experience those were actually the least useful parts of Causes. </p>
<p>Again, I suspect this was a limitation imposed by MySpace, so I don't necessarily fault Causes. The lesson here, though, is that <strong>a fundraising widget is not enough of a draw</strong>. The chance for engaging supporters &mdash; not just in things like one-way email blasts but in things like leaderboards showing the top fundraisers among supporter-created Causes &mdash; is, in the end, the "killer" part of this app.</p>
<h3>What this means for nonprofits on MySpace</h3>
<p><strong>Despite repeated claims that MySpace is "dead," I continue to think it's a smart move for many nonprofits to have a presence there.</strong></p>
<p><strong></strong>Sociologist danah boyd has documented the clear <a title="The Not-So-Hidden Politics of Class Online" href="http://www.danah.org/papers/talks/PDF2009.html" target="_blank">socioeconomic</a> <a title="MySpace vs. Facebook: A Digital Enactment of Class-Based Social Categories Amongst American Teenagers" href="http://www.danah.org/papers/talks/ICA2009.html" target="_blank">differences</a> between MySpace and Facebook, and Amy Sample Ward has stressed the need to <a title="First and Foremost: Know your Community" href="http://www.ssireview.org/opinion/entry/first_and_foremost_know_your_community/" target="_blank">know your community and where it is</a>. Facebook, after all, was built by and for middle- and owning-class college-educated folks &mdash; exactly those people who fill nonprofit staffs. But if your organization <a href="http://www.marketingfornonprofits.org/2009/11/are-online-communities-just-as.html?showComment=1257526462528#c6820898715423075412">serves a different community</a>, then simply going where your staff is familiar might not be the best choice.</p>
<p>For those who want to do peer-to-peer fundraising on MySpace, there are still widgets like <a href="http://www.chipin.com/" target="_blank">ChipIn</a> available for that purpose. They won't have the "built-in" feel that Causes on MySpace did, but they're fairly easy to guide people through with a quick training or video.</p>
<h3>What this means for nonprofit fundraising on social networks</h3>
<p><strong>The bigger lesson here is that you can't rely on third-party, often for-profit services to support your organization's interests.</strong> To Causes, leaving MySpace to focus on its core community on Facebook made good business sense, but certainly those organizations left in the lurch on MySpace feel otherwise.</p>
<p>I think Rebecca Leaman <a href="http://twitter.com/rjleaman/status/5430851340" target="_blank">said it best</a>&nbsp;&mdash; don't put "all fundraising eggs in one third-party basket!" These services are useful, and can help your organization advance its mission, but it's not accountable to you &mdash; and you need to have other options.</p>
<h3>Letting go of your message, holding on to your relationships</h3>
<p>I (and many others) have often said that in order to be successful in social media, nonprofits need to be willing to give up some control over their message &mdash; to let supporters speak in their own voice. What Causes' move has exposed, though, is that while it's important to let go of your message, you still need to have control over your relationships.</p>
<p><strong>Nonprofits don't own or even control the connections they have with their supporters in these spaces</strong> &mdash; the comments, messages, badges and memberships of supporters within social networks are all locked within those social networks and are used under contract (terms of service) from the social network. </p>
<p>Systems like <a href="http://developers.facebook.com/connect.php" target="_blank">Facebook Connect</a> or <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/opensocial/" target="_blank">OpenSocial</a> allow those relationships to be exposed elsewhere, but that's not the same as control. If the social network or service decides the nonprofit has run afoul of the contract, or the company goes bankrupt, cancels services or features, or gets sold to a different company who does &mdash; there's nothing an organization will be able to do.</p>
<p>That's why it's important to have multiple channels of communication with supporters and to continually try to <a href="http://www.orgnet.com/sna.html" target="_blank">move people toward the center</a> of your organization by deepening involvement, so that if you lose them in one space they don't simply fade off into the ether.</p>
<h3>Open-source, open data, open networks</h3>
<p>Amy Sample Ward makes some great points that social change communities may have to <a href="http://www.amysampleward.org/2009/11/06/new-on-ssir-letting-technology-lead/" target="_blank">take the lead on technology</a> by pushing for more openness and transparency. I've written before, for instance, that <a href="/blog/2009/01/community-blogs-run-better-open-source-software">community blogs run better on open-source software</a>, and I think in principle the same is true for social networks.</p>
<p>But nonprofits and social change movements will always have to go where the supporters are &mdash; and in many cases that will mean closed, proprietary, walled-garden social networks.</p>
<p><strong>What would it look like if nonprofits and social change movements &mdash; which these third party applications often use to market themselves as effective and "good" &mdash; started demanding some openness?</strong>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Is it reasonable to assert that organizations and individuals should "own" their relationships, even when within a proprietary network? Can long-term social change happen when connections must be re-built on each new online social network to be developed?</p>
<p>While Causes on MySpace may be no more, I think this event raises some important questions for the relationship between nonprofits, social change, and for-profit software and services. What are your thoughts?</p>
<p><strong>Update:</strong> I hadn't seen <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/causes_on_myspace.php" target="_blank">Read Write Web's coverage</a> of this, but I think it's worth a read. As I say above, I think Causes' supposed "failures" to raise tons of money for nonprofits is less of an issue than some might think (for a great perspective on this, see <a href="http://afine2.wordpress.com/2009/04/22/wash-post-disses-causes-on-facebook/" target="_blank">Allison Fine</a>). But as many of the commenters suggest, the way forward is to explore mechanisms for open-sourcing our relationships from these closed, proprietary systems, be they widgets like Causes or networks like Facebook and MySpace.</p>
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<p><a href="http://rootwork.org/services">Learn about Rootwork's services for nonprofits and social change.</a></p>FundraisingcommunityMySpacenptechopen-sourcesocialchangeFri, 06 Nov 2009 20:44:48 +0000Ivan Boothe73 at http://rootwork.mayfirst.orgUsing Social Networks for Social Change: Facebook, MySpace and Morehttp://rootwork.mayfirst.org/blog/2008/10/using-social-networks-social-change-facebook-myspace-more
<p>In 2008, I spoke at the <a href="http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/103/t/6267/content.jsp?content_KEY=4035" target="_blank">Democracy in Action Community Conference</a> about the Genocide Intervention Network's use of social networking and social media to achieve our goals in advocacy, fundraising and membership development.</p>
<div id="__ss_632091" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1em 1em; width: 425px; text-align: center; float: right;">
<h3><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/rootwork/using-social-networks-for-social-change-facebook-myspace-and-more-presentation?type=presentation" title="Using Social Networks for Social Change: Facebook, MySpace and More">Using Social Networks for Social Change: Facebook, MySpace and More</a></h3>
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<p>I had planned to present a slideshow along with my talk, but in fact, technical difficulties prevented me from doing so. The <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/rootwork/using-social-networks-for-social-change-facebook-myspace-and-more-presentation#stats-bottom" target="_blank">presentation posted on Slideshare</a> is thus a recreation of that talk, with the audio keyed to the slides. For those of you who prefer things in textual form, I'll write out most of it below, but I encourage you to at least page through the slides for the pictures.</p>
<p>Many of the points I make in the presentation draw on things I've written on this site; I've linked to some of these articles in the body of the presentation below.</p>
<p><strong>Jump directly to the success stories:</strong></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="#success1">Using Online Student Pressure to Pass Legislation</a></li>
<li><a href="#success2">A Photo Petition Puts Students at the Heart of a Congressional Briefing</a></li>
<li><a href="#success3">How Social Networks Can Coordinate a Fundraising Drive</a></li>
</ul>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>A Mission to Empower</h3>
<p>The <a href="http://www.genocideintervention.net/" target="_blank">Genocide Intervention Network</a> is an organization that I helped form in college, and where I worked as director of communications and Internet strategy coordinator from 2004–2008. The mission of the organization is to empower members with tools to prevent and stop genocide.</p>
<p>The idea of "<strong>empowerment</strong>" is key to the organization's mission, and undergirds our approach to social networks and social media. GI-Net wants members who can <a href="/blog/2007/10/organizing-rather-mobilizing-using-social-networks-constituency-building" title="Read 'Organizing Rather than Mobilizing: Using Social Networks for Constituency-Building'">think for themselves</a>, and consequently social networking is a key method by which the organization helps train supporters to speak for themselves, for us, and for an anti-genocide movement.</p>
<p>Many groups use social networks for <strong>mobilizing</strong> — getting members out to an evnt, getting people to sign a petition, getting people to donate for a cause. GI-Net focuses on <strong>organizing</strong> — creating an educated constituency of people who can motivate others.</p>
<p>When we first arrived on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2204803189" target="_blank">Facebook</a> in 2005, for example, there were already dozens of groups about the genocide in Darfur, Sudan. So it was much more about giving supporters tools to take effective action than it was about convincing people to join our cause. <strong>Social networks are an integral part of an organizing strategy, because communication and engagement are what they're all about.</strong></p>
<h3><a name="weaving"></a>Weaving Your Social Web</h3>
<p>The dynamics and demographics of each social network are different — what may make sense on MySpace could be seen as annoying on Facebook. If you have a specific niche, you might try focused networks like <a href="http://www.blackplanet.com/" target="_blank">BlackPlanet</a>, <a href="http://www.eons.com/" target="_blank">Eons</a>, <a href="http://www.glee.com/" target="_blank">GLEE</a>, <a href="http://www.wiserearth.org/" target="_blank">WiserEarth</a> or <a href="http://hub.witness.org/" target="_blank">The Hub</a>.</p>
<p>For a sociological study of these different kinds of networks, check out the writings of <a href="http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/" target="_blank">danah boyd</a>. Interestingly, many nonprofit professionals see Facebook as the "more interesting" or "more useful" social network as compared to MySpace, and that's largely because, indeed, Facebook is designed to appeal to the predominant class and educational backgrounds of these folks. Depending on an organization's constituency, however, MySpace might actually be a better way to reach your supporters. Don't decide where to organize online based on which site you or your executive director personally think is most appealing.</p>
<p><strong>When you're determining which network(s) to organize on, the key thing to remember is that </strong><strong>you don't have to be everywhere.</strong> In fact, it's often better if you start with just one — get your bearings, try out some different approaches, and become thoughtfully engaged with your community of supporters there. You need to make a commitment to each network you join; there's nothing worse (or more unprofessional looking) than a clearly-abandoned organizational profile, where messages go unanswered and spam comments go unmoderated.</p>
<h3>Social Media and Social Networks</h3>
<p>Social media (e.g. YouTube and Flickr) often integrate particularly well with social networks (e.g. Facebook and MySpace), as a way to help engage members and heighten interest. Why not simply upload your own images and host your own videos? The "social" in social media ensures that, if you post your media with useful titles, descriptions and keywords, other people may well discover you who wouldn't otherwise have encountered you — and you'll draw them further into your social web.</p>
<h4>Using Videos on MySpace</h4>
<p>When we first put our profile up on <a href="http://www.myspace.com/genocideintervention" target="_blank">MySpace</a>, we were getting one or two friend requests a day, and that's not too bad for just starting off. As soon as we put up a short video about the organization — posted via <a href="http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=genocideintervention" target="_blank">YouTube</a>, in the hopes of drawing in people from that site as well — our friend requests went up to 10–15 per day. Supporters could embed the videos in their own profiles themselves. That's the advantage of social media in social networks: <strong>People are drawn to photos and video, and the nature of social networking allows them to easily share them with friends.</strong></p>
<h3><a name="keys"></a>Keys to Success on Social Networks</h3>
<ul>
<li>It's about member engagement.</li>
</ul>
<p>You might notice there's only one key: Facilitating conversations <em>between</em> and <em>among</em> your supporters. Ultimately, getting an excited base of supporters begins with having them talk to each other about what they're doing around an issue.</p>
<p><strong>It's really not a billboard.</strong> You need to cultivate relationships with your supporters.</p>
<h4>The Money Thing</h4>
<p>Social networks are not going to replace your development director. Even when you do raise money, it's usually more about member engagement than it is about a significant revenue stream. GI-Net's experience with Causes, a platform on Facebook and MySpace, was that "fundraisers" were actually a great way to give supporters something concrete to work toward — but that it hasn't been a very significant source of donations. Nonetheless, the social aspect to it ensures that members who <em>do</em> participate become even more engaged and are often willing to help spearhead the next advocacy campaign.</p>
<p>The top Cause on Facebook had, as of June 2008, more than 3 million members but only raised about $50,000; the vast majority of nonprofits using Causes hadn't raised more than a few hundred dollars. Innovative fundraising campaigns using social networks may bear fruit financially, but member engagement is almost always going to be the primary goal in the end.</p>
<h3>Let Your People Speak...</h3>
<p>Causes is also a good illustration of another point: <strong>You need to let your supporters speak for you on social networks.</strong> GI-Net set up an "official" Cause on Facebook, but a member-created Cause benefiting us has more than twice the number of supporters. We could have tried to shut down the unofficial group in an effort to control our message, but instead we reached out to the creator — who was more than willing to send out alerts anyway — and found ways to engage our supporters while still recognizing their own creativity.</p>
<p>The whole <em>point</em> of the social experience is the coveted "recommendation from a friend." Forcing your members to send out only board-approved talking points won't inspire much loyalty, and probably won't be very persuasive to their friends. <strong>Nonprofits have to be willing to <a href="/blog/2008/05/just-what-kind-social-change-are-you-interested" title="Read 'Just what kind of social change are you interested in?'">lose some of their message</a> control in exchange for member loyalty.</strong> Trust me — it's worth the trade-off.</p>
<h3>...And Then Listen to What They Say</h3>
<p>On our MySpace profile, we have a prominent newsletter-signup form at the top of the screen. But we don't simply cut-and-paste our blast emails directly to the MySpace crowd. For one of our MySpace blogs, we said the following:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Are you active in your community on anti-genocide issues? Raising money for civilian protection in Darfur — educating your neighbors about the mass atrocities in Burma — working to pass divestment from Sudan in your state? Leave us a comment and describe what you're doing!</p>
<p>We want you in our top friends!</p>
<p>In the coming weeks, we'll be rotating in all of our MySpace friends who are active on anti-genocide issues into our top friends. You've been supporting us, now we want to support you!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>On MySpace, putting someone in your "top friends" is a way of showing thanks and respect, and it was an easy thing to do. We heard from a dozen different local activists who were all featured, some of whom ended up being key leaders on future advocacy campaigns. <strong>Show your supporters that you're listening to them, and they'll reward you!</strong></p>
<p>This approach — what's sometimes called "user-generated content" — is a fantastic way to converse with supporters on social networks. Ask people for their stories, photos, videos or other creative work, and then feature some or all of that content. You'll end up with more dedicated members who are willing to take the next step; after having been engaged on a small issue ("take a picture of your fundraiser for Darfur") they'll be willing to lead on a larger one ("help organize a local visit to your member of Congress").</p>
<h3><a name="success1">Success Story 1: Using Online Student Pressure to Pass Legislation</a></h3>
<p>In 2005, there was an anti-genocide bill that was being held up by a Senate committee chair. Using Facebook, GI-Net identified and reached out to students in that senator's home state.</p>
<p>Instead of having the students contact the senator directly, we guided the students in a process of using the website <a href="http://www.OpenSecrets.org" target="_blank">OpenSecrets.org</a> to determine the senator's top campaign donors. The students called those donors and asked <em>them</em> to contact the senator and say that standing up against genocide is a moral imperative, and that the senator should move the bill.</p>
<p>The result: Two weeks later, the bill was passed by the committee, was approved by the full Senate, and eventually was signed into law.</p>
<h3><a name="success2">Success Story 2: A Photo Petition Puts Students at the Heart of a Congressional Briefing</a></h3>
<p>GI-Net's student division, <a href="http://standnow.org/" target="_blank">STAND</a>, initiated a campaign called "Picture a World Without Genocide," in which they encouraged high school students to submit photos via Facebook and MySpace of their activism on Darfur. Hundreds of pictures were collected and compiled into a large poster spelling out the word "Darfur."</p>
<p>We presented this poster at a Capitol Hill briefing, in conjunction with a report we were releasing about congressional action on Darfur. We had prepared the report, and originally we were going to do a traditional press conference in which we called out Congress for their inaction.</p>
<p>We decided to couple the release of this report with this visible manifestation of student activism, as a way to keep our members engaged. In the weeks following the event, the numbers of co-sponsors for key legislation increased substantially — and <strong>because students had been "part of the action," they were able to claim part of the victory</strong>.</p>
<p>In fact, even if no new co-sponsors had signed on, the action still would have been a great way to activate supporters, so it was really a no-lose campaign for us.</p>
<h4>A Worldwide Photo Gallery in 24 Hours</h4>
<p>When coordinated rallies focusing on Darfur were set up by the <a href="http://www.savedarfur.org" target="_blank">Save Darfur Coalition</a> (of which GI-Net is a part), we encouraged our members to take part — and take pictures. Then we had them upload their images to the photosharing site <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/genocideintervention" target="_blank">Flickr</a>, along with a special tag, or keyword, for that event. Using Flickr's own system, we could then pull images with that tag onto GI-Net's website in a constantly-updated, rotating gallery of Darfur activism the day after the event.</p>
<p>Total time on our part? About 15 minutes to write the email to our members, and 10 minutes to put the gallery on our website.</p>
<h3><a name="success3">Success Story 3: How Social Networks Can Coordinate a Fundraising Drive</a></h3>
<p>STAND's annual "DarfurFast" encourages students on one day to refrain from one luxury item, and donate the proceeds to GI-Net's Darfur protection program. We engage people around the campaign on several different channels, including Facebook, MySpace, <a href="http://endgenocide.livejournal.com/" target="_blank">LiveJournal</a> and <a href="http://twitter.com/antigenocide" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.</p>
<p>Social networks were a key way to keep supporters engaged — as well as inviting friends on campus to take part in the real-world upcoming events. <strong>The key is that the person-to-person networks already existed in the form of chapters and campus networks</strong>; online social networks simply facilitated an easier invitation to friends.</p>
<p>So, we raised more than $500,000 over the course of three years with this event; 2007 saw participation from 450 high schools and 300 colleges. But it's very unlikely we would have ever raised that kind of money via Facebook et al. alone — the online social networks simply supplemented the on-the-ground organizing we (and campus leaders) had already been doing. In fact, online social networks are probably <em>most</em> strategically useful when the event is offline, allowing supporters to quickly spread the word well ahead of time.</p>
<p>It's worth mentioning that many of these methods worked particularly well because they centered on students, who are most active on these networks, generally have easy access to computers and are more likely to have free time. While GI-Net has a constituency far beyond students alone (and sometimes reaches those constituencies directly through networks like Eons), you shouldn't necessarily expect these kinds of returns from everyone. As noted above, working-class communities, communities of color, folks with less formal education and various kinds of "marginalized" groups interact with online social networks very differently, often because of stronger real-world social networks. The best organizing strategy activates people through all their social connections, whether online or offline.</p>
<h3>Final Thoughts</h3>
<ul>
<li><strong>Engaging supporters on social networks is long-term.</strong> Don't expect immediate results.</li>
<li><strong>It takes effort.</strong> You need to be willing to communicate, in both directions, with your supporters.</li>
<li><strong>If you want your members to spread your message, you have to trust them.</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>Feedback in the comments below is welcome! And once again, let me encourage you to take a look at the <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/rootwork/using-social-networks-for-social-change-facebook-myspace-and-more-presentation#stats-bottom" target="_blank">Slideshare version</a> for illustrations of what's been discussed. Thanks for reading!</p>
<h3>Additional Resources</h3>
<p>Check out these writers for great ideas on how nonprofits can use social networks to their greatest potential:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://diosacommunications.blogspot.com" target="_blank">Heather Mansfield</a> writes about best practices for nonprofit use of social networks</li>
<li><a href="http://beth.typepad.com" target="_blank">Beth Kanter</a> writes about innovative ways nonprofits are using social media</li>
<li><a href="http://www.socialsignal.com/blog" target="_blank">Alexandra Samuel and Rob Cottingham</a> write about ways to build online communities both within and beyond existing social networks</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Join Rootwork on <a href="https://twitter.com/rootwork">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://facebook.com/rootwork">Facebook</a> and <a href="http://slideshare.net/rootwork">SlideShare</a>.</strong></p>
<p><a href="http://rootwork.org/services">Learn about Rootwork's services for nonprofits and social change.</a></p>Social Networking and Social MediaMulchempowermentFacebookFlickrLiveJournalMySpaceNetSquarednptechsocialchangeTwittervideoweb2.0YouTubeFri, 24 Oct 2008 23:58:29 +0000Ivan Boothe53 at http://rootwork.mayfirst.orgThe theory of bottom-up social networkinghttp://rootwork.mayfirst.org/blog/2006/12/theory-bottom-social-networking
<p> Recently, the <a href="http://www.genocideintervention.net/" target="_blank">Genocide Intervention Network</a>'s efforts in "social networking" — things like MySpace, Facebook, Flickr and del.icio.us — have been attracting a fair amount of attention. I was invited to write guest posts for the <a href="http://blog.democracyinaction.org/comments.jsp?blog_entry_KEY=21711" target="_blank">Democracy in Action blog</a> and <a href="http://www.idealware.org/articles/social_networking_genocide.php" target="_blank">Idealware</a> (a fleshed-out and updated version of the DiA post) and was asked to present at the <a href="http://netsquared.meetup.com/2/calendar/5079363/" target="_blank">DC NetSquared MeetUp</a> and the <a href="http://www.internetadvocacycenter.com/education/roundtable.html" target="_blank">Internet Advocacy Roundtable</a>. That all follows some <a href="http://netsquared.org/blog/quixotic/can-blogging-stop-genocide" target="_blank">more general ideas on blogging</a> that I wrote as an introduction to the NetSquared national conference last May (see also a <a href="http://genocideintervention.net/members/docs/netact.pdf" target="_blank">PDF of the brochure</a> distributed to attendees). </p> <p> Today, Joshua Levy at Personal Democracy Forum posts the "<a href="http://www.personaldemocracy.com/node/1116" target="_blank">rules for using MySpace</a>" derived from interviews with me and with Scott Goodstein, another online organizer who has done some amazing work with <a href="http://www.myspace.com/savetheinternet" target="_blank">Save the Internet</a>, <a href="http://www.myspace.com/save1800suicide" target="_blank">Save1800Suicide</a> and the <a href="http://www.militaryfreezone.org/" target="_blank">Military Free Zone</a>. (Scott was also the person who originally contacted GI-Net about collaborating with the band Anti-Flag on a Darfur essay included in their newest album.) </p> <p> One thing I have been emphasizing in all of these presentations and interviews has been the idea of <strong>using social networking as a "bottom-up" way of online mobilization</strong> — in the words of GI-Net's mission, "empowering individuals and communities with the tools" to effect change. </p> <p> Salient quote from Joshua's article: </p> <blockquote>Offering concrete ideas for how to solve a seemingly insurmountable problem can give people a sense that they, as individuals, have a stake in an issue. The Genocide Intervention Network links to a list of "ten things you can do to stop genocide." Ivan Boothe argues that these steps, broken down into easily digestible chunks, give people an easy way to participate. Although they also link to the Genocide Intervention Network's main web site, that isn't always the point. "A number of these steps aren't even within our organization," Boothe says. This sort of advocacy is similar to bottom-up, open-source collaborative projects like Wikipedia, in which no one group has proprietary ownership over an idea or a product; instead, the goal is a constant generation of awareness and ideas. A MySpace page, says Boothe, isn't simply an advertisement for an organization, "it's a tool for mobilizing people for different kinds of action." </blockquote> <p> I don't by any means consider myself an expert (personally I find myself less interested in MySpace than you might expect — but then again I'm a techie who hates cell phones, so maybe that's not a surprise) but I do think there's a lot to be accomplished in this space. I think organizations just have to stay focused on empowering their members rather than simply advertising to them, and really being willing engaging them in a constructive way. </p> <p> Many of the <a href="http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/79084/myspace_brings_humanitarian_organization.html" target="_blank">approaches to social networking</a> seem to involve nothing more than acquiring banner space: </p> <blockquote> If anyone out in the world needs help, all they have to do is look to MySpace. You just have to get up on the wall at MySpace, and represent. Good things will happen. </blockquote> <p> Yes, you can reach a large audience with MySpace, and statistically, with a large enough audience you will have talented people volunteer their services. But that's not "social networking," it's just advertising — if nonprofits could easily and cheaply fly banner advertisements behind airplanes in the world's major cities, they would probably get a lot of volunteers, too. The only difference in this case is that it's electronic and (relatively) free. </p> <p> And — as our organization has certainly found out — getting a lot of volunteers often means getting a lot of people wanting to do things you don't do or can't do (like volunteering to go to Darfur, or raising money for guns for rebels, or adopting orphaned Darfurian children). Getting a lot of exposure all of a sudden can overwhelm a nonprofit, and if there isn't a clear understanding already in place about how to effectively mobilize people toward actions that will make a positive difference, then I would be worried about getting distracted by chasing benefit concerts and bake sales all over the world. Enthusiastic supporters are great, but sometimes you have to channel them in the right direction. </p> <p> Finally, even if online organizing dovetails well with community organizing, the mobilizing of third-party advocates only effects change if that mobilization is directed in a useful direction.* You might get a lot of people to sign a petition, but does that actually aid the community you supposedly help? You might attract a lot of donations, but does that actually support the people you say you represent? <strong>These are classic nonprofit challenges that don't go away simply through electronic networking.</strong> </p> <p> Online organizing doesn't replace real on-the-ground community organizing or empowerment. (This is actually one of my concerns with the <a href="http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2006/07/an_interview_wi.html" target="_blank">Second Life nonprofit fad</a>, but that's for another post.) Action online only matters if it can be translated into the real world, or if it can develop social bonds that provide the framework for real-world action. </p> <h3>Social Networking to Stop Genocide</h3> <p> Some of GI-Net's social networking campaigns online: </p> <ul> <li><a href="http://myspace.com/genocideintervention" target="_blank">MySpace</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2204803189" target="_blank">Facebook</a></li> <li><a href="http://del.icio.us/antigenocide" target="_blank">del.icio.us</a> and <a href="http://ma.gnolia.com/people/antigenocide" target="_blank">Magnolia</a></li> <li><a href="http://endgenocide.livejournal.com/profile" target="_blank">LiveJournal</a></li> <li><a href="http://flickr.com/photos/genocideintervention" target="_blank">Flickr</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=genocideintervention" target="_blank">YouTube</a></li> </ul> <p> <em>* Interestingly, there have been very few effective online campaigns (using SNS or otherwise) with organizations that directly represent the communities they organize (e.g. homeless rights movements as opposed to advocates from the Global North raising money for Africa). The big one that comes to mind is the immigrants rights marches in the United States. Yet in that case, most of the mobilization came from <a href="http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20060619&amp;s=lovato" target="_blank">radio DJs and existing labor ties</a>, not the Internet. And when social networking did come into play, such as the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/28/AR2006032800982.html" target="_blank">student walkouts</a> in Virginia and Maryland, they were largely decentralized, with no organization pointing the way or setting up MySpace profiles to encourage the movement.</em> </p>
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<p><a href="http://rootwork.org/services">Learn about Rootwork's services for nonprofits and social change.</a></p>Social Networking and Social MediaactivismempowermentMySpaceNetSquarednptechsocialchangeMon, 04 Dec 2006 20:15:55 +0000Ivan Boothe5 at http://rootwork.mayfirst.orgSocial Networks for Social Change on Beth Kanter's bloghttp://rootwork.mayfirst.org/coverage/2008/11/social-networks-social-change-beth-kanters-blog
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<p>Beth Kanter was nice enough to feature my recent slideshow on using <a href="http://rootwork.org/blog/2008/10/using-social-networks-social-change-facebook-myspace-more">social networks for social change</a>.</p>
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<a href="http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2008/11/social-networks-for-social-change-ivan-boothe-knows-what-he-is-talking-about.html" target="_blank">Beth&#039;s Blog, Beth Kanter</a> </div>
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<span class="date-display-single">12 November 2008</span> </div>
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<p>Ivan Boothe helped start the <a href="http://www.genocideintervention.net/">Genocide Intervention Network<</a> in 2004, and was responsible for communications, web development and social networking strategy.&nbsp;He has since started doing freelance work on his own at <a href="http://rootwork.org/" target="_blank">rootwork.org<</a>.&nbsp;So he cautioned me that some of the information might not be entirely up to date that he shared on listserv including a pointer to his awesome slide show with&nbsp;audio.</p>
<p>Ivan is one of a small number of nonprofit early adopters in social media and social networks&nbsp;&mdash; he has a couple of years of experience under his belt&nbsp;&mdash; <a href="http://www.idealware.org/articles/social_networking_genocide.php">so his wisdom is priceless<</a>.</p>
<p>Ivan says their organization&#8217;s social networking initiatives have been successful in building the &#8220;brand&#8221; of an anti-genocide constituency. Ivan notes, &#8220;<em>Social networking is a long-term approach and using traditional metrics of advocacy or fundraising it may not look like much. But over a long period of time social networking is actually critical in building an effective, educated political&nbsp;constituency.&#8221;</em></p>
<p>So, what is the right fit to use a social networking strategy?&nbsp; Ivan&nbsp;suggests:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>Social networking is a natural fit for an organization that wants more than an <span class="caps">ATM</span> of donors or a list of petition-signers, but active and engaged political&nbsp;organizers.</em></p>
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Social Networking and Social MediaFacebookMySpaceNetSquarednptechsocialchangeweb2.0Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:00:00 +0000Ivan Boothe52 at http://rootwork.mayfirst.orgInterview on 'bottom-up' social networking from Personal Democracy Forumhttp://rootwork.mayfirst.org/coverage/2006/12/interview-bottom-social-networking-personal-democracy-forum
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<p>Joshua Levy&#8217;s article at <span class="caps">PDF</span> articulates the &#8220;rules for using <a class="glossary-term" href="http://rootwork.org/category/tags/myspace"><span hovertip=46>MySpace</span></a><span class="hovertip" id="46">MySpace is a social network that is not built around a single identity. Users can and do have multiple profiles, with no restrictions on the &#8220;names&#8221; they use. MySpace is used by many musical groups.</span>&#8221; derived from his interviews with me and with Scott Goodstein, another online organizer who has done some amazing work. I wrote more extensively about the issues raised in this interview in my blog posting, &#8220;<a href="/blog/2006/12/theory-bottom-social-networking" title="Read the complete blog entry">The theory of bottom-up social networking<</a>.&#8221;</p>
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<a href="http://www.personaldemocracy.com/node/1116" target="_blank">Joshua Levy, Personal Democracy Forum</a> </div>
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<span class="date-display-single">4 December 2006</span> </div>
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<p>Offering concrete ideas for how to solve a seemingly insurmountable problem can give people a sense that they, as individuals, have a stake in an issue. The Genocide Intervention Network links to a list of &#8220;ten things you can do to stop genocide.&#8221; Ivan Boothe argues that these steps, broken down into easily digestible chunks, give people an easy way to participate. Although they also link to the Genocide Intervention Network&#8217;s main web site, that isn&#8217;t always the point. &#8220;A number of these steps aren&#8217;t even within our organization,&#8221; Boothe says. <b>This sort of advocacy is similar to bottom-up, open-source collaborative projects like Wikipedia, in which no one group has proprietary ownership over an idea or a product; instead, the goal is a constant generation of awareness and ideas.</b> A <a class="glossary-term" href="http://rootwork.org/category/tags/myspace"><span hovertip=46>MySpace</span></a><span class="hovertip" id="46">MySpace is a social network that is not built around a single identity. Users can and do have multiple profiles, with no restrictions on the &#8220;names&#8221; they use. MySpace is used by many musical groups.</span> page, says Boothe, isn&#8217;t simply an advertisement for an organization, &#8220;it&#8217;s a tool for mobilizing people for different kinds of&nbsp;action.&#8221;</p>
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Social Networking and Social MediaactivismempowermentMySpacesocialchangeweb2.0Mon, 04 Dec 2006 23:00:00 +0000Ivan Boothe43 at http://rootwork.mayfirst.orgApopheniahttp://rootwork.mayfirst.org/resource/apophenia
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<p>Sociological research and commentary on the use of social networks like <a class="glossary-term" href="http://rootwork.org/category/tags/myspace"><span hovertip=46>MySpace</span></a><span class="hovertip" id="46">MySpace is a social network that is not built around a single identity. Users can and do have multiple profiles, with no restrictions on the &#8220;names&#8221; they use. MySpace is used by many musical groups.</span>, <a class="glossary-term" href="http://rootwork.org/category/tags/facebook"><span hovertip=45>Facebook</span></a><span class="hovertip" id="45">Facebook is a social network encouraging real identity — each user has a single account under their full, real name. Facebook began among <span class="caps">US</span> college students but has quickly expanded to people of all ages around the world.</span>, <a class="glossary-term" href="http://rootwork.org/category/tags/livejournal"><span hovertip=50>LiveJournal</span></a><span class="hovertip" id="50">LiveJournal is a social network built around blogging. Users can &#8220;friend&#8221; one another and restrict some or all blog entries to their friends. Users can also join blogging communities built around particular topics.</span>, Xanga and <a class="glossary-term" href="http://rootwork.org/category/tags/youtube"><span hovertip=47>YouTube</span></a><span class="hovertip" id="47">YouTube is a social network built around video content: posting, sharing, rating and commenting.</span> by teenagers in the United States. <b>danah boyd</b> is a PhD candidate at the University of California Berkeley and a fellow at Harvard&#8217;s Berkman Center for Internet and&nbsp;Society.</p>
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<a href="http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/" target="_blank">http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/</a> </div>
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Social Networking and Social MediaFacebookMySpaceNetSquaredYouTubeSun, 27 Jul 2008 02:55:33 +0000Ivan Boothe20 at http://rootwork.mayfirst.org